Major League Baseball has always been America’s sweetheart as much as it's been America’s pastime. The sport is associated with all things American - apple pie, hot dogs and, now, (anti) voting legislation. 
Rob Manfred, Taking Names
When Rob Mandfred, Major League Baseball’s (MLB) commissioner, unilaterally decided to remove the MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta, it was shocking only because this was the most overt act MLB, America’s sweetheart, has taken in, well, maybe ever. The Georgia law, SB 202, despite being advertised as a law needed to “restore confidence in elections”, is intended to instill several voting restrictions that will have a disproportionate impact on Georgia’s minorities who vote predominantly Democrat. In turn, it would be no surprise if the NFL with its kneeling or the NBA with its boycotts would have opted to express displeasure with the law, but to have the MLB, with its romanticized Americano look - “play ball”, rush in to take a stand is more patriotic than the condiment races between innings.
Despite Manfred stating that the MLB “fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restriction to the ballot box”, Manfred’s decision to remove the All-Star Game from Atlanta has as much to do with promoting democratic values as it does having to do with the survival of the baseball industry.
Baseball, as it is now, is watched by mainly older white individuals. The average age of a baseball television viewer, according to a 2017 Sports Business Journal study, is 57 years old. 83% of baseball’s television audience is white, while Blacks and Hispanics make up roughly 9% of viewership each. These metrics compare poorly with America’s ongoing demographic shift from a white majority country to a much more heavily diverse population. According to William H. Frey, a Senior Fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program, the “2010 to 2020 decade will be the first in the nation’s history in which the white population declined in number.” Additionally, Frey found that in 2019 half of the nation’s population under the age of 16 identified as a racial or ethnic minority.
Diverse Group of Guys Right There...
Both MLB and the Georgia legislature want to reach the same goal - stay alive. MLB has done this by recognizing that the nation is changing both in age and in race. A business can only survive if it has consumers willing to purchase its products. In MLB’s case it needs viewership to increase among the young and ethinic. Granted that MLB’s rule changes to help raise viewership with the youth (pitch clock, extra inning rule changes) have not been effective, it would be business suicide to try and attract minorities while also promoting an All-Star Game in a state that is desperately trying to inhibit its minority citizens’ right to vote.
On the other hand, the Georgia Republican legislature, which is predominantly white men, have decided that the only way they will lose power is if too many of a certain kind of people (i.e. minorities) turn out to vote. This is what happened in last year’s elections when Georgia’s minorities turned out in droves and propelled both Biden and two Democratic senators to Washington. The Republican’s strategy is (1) illegal and (2) an admission of guilt from that their political platform and beliefs cannot compete fairly to win a majority of their constituents (all of them- not just white people).
If this was happening in any other country, America would be boycotting that country similar to how the MLB is boycotting Georgia, because, well, America has done just that many times. America boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in response to the Soviet Union's violations of human rights through its invasion of Afghanistan. Moreover the U.S. is strongly considering boycotting the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are to be held in Beijing, over China’s human rights abuses of its Uyghurs citizens, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group. In fact, many Republicans in Congress are pushing for the U.S. to boycott the Beijing games (ironic).
Additionally, in the private realm, the NBA, in a rejection of North Carolina’s law that mandated transgender people use the public bathroom of their matching gender assigned at birth, removed the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte. Likewise amid pressure from the Southeastern Conference, a collegiate athletic conference composed of several southeastern U.S. schools, and the NCAA, college athletics’ governing body, who refused to hold any championship events in states with flags in which the Confederate flag had a “prominent presence”, Mississippi’s state legislature voted to change its state flag in 2020. Boycotts through sports have brought change and made life painful for those who promote injustices for personal gains.
History of Sports Boycotts Out of Ethical Concerns
While the Georgia Republicans cling to survival by denying its citizens freedoms and claiming anyone who opposes them is supporting “cancel culture”, MLB has sought survival by making those citizens’ freedoms be heard. For the sake of this nation we can only hope that Major League Baseball wins this ballgame and the Republicans strike out.
